Basehor OKs sign for liquor store, rejects church’s pro-life signs

Basehor  The Basehor City Planning and Zoning Commission approved a new liquor store sign off State Avenue on Tuesday night while also voting against a temporary pro-life sign in front of a church.

Both proposed signs violated aspects of the city’s sign code, which the commissioners agreed needs revisions. In a work session before the planning commission meeting, City Engineer Mitch Pleak said he would present the group with recommendations for revising several aspects of city code, including signs.

The approved $60,000 monument sign will be built in front of the new commercial space on Pinehurst Road that will house Bohannon’s Wine and Spirits Liquor Store and two other tenants. The sign will be set back 6 feet from the Bohanon’s Liquor property line, 4 feet less than required by city code. An additional sign directing drivers to the drive-through window of the liquor store will be 8 square feet, rather than the code requirement of 4 square feet.

The sign will include a 43-inch digital, changeable copy board not allowed in the current commercial zone under city code. First State Bank, with a digital copy board of 68 inches, and Community National Bank erected theirs prior to the current code's creation.

The council approved the liquor store's 18-foot-high sign and drive-through marker on a 4-2 vote. Commission members Ed Bush and Tracey Hannah voting against that plan. Pleak said city staff found that the sign’s distance, 58 feet from State Avenue, did not influence drivers’ safety. The state requires that such signs be at least 30 feet from roadway pavement.

“This would not influence traffic in the area,” Pleak told the planning commission.

Meanwhile, a signage bid by Holy Angel’s Catholic Church on Leavenworth Road was rejected Tuesday night. The church is built in a residential zoned area of Basehor, which only allows a property to post three 8-square-feet signs.

The petition filed by Bill Loechler, the church’s pro-life coordinator, asked permission to post two temporary 16-square-foot signs for 60 days on the property with the messages “I am not a choice…I am a child,” and “Everyday 3,300 babies are killed by abortion.”

Several members of the planning commission expressed concerns about driver safety and residential complaints if the signs ran parallel to the roadway and faced houses on the opposite side of Leavenworth Road. The proposed size of the signs, however, raised the most objections.

The church's request was rejected in a 4-3 vote. Commission members Burns, Hannah, John Matthews and Jon Gallion voted against, while members John Flower, Fred Farris and Terry Gall were in favor.

Loechler argued in his petition that the church is requesting “the same opportunity as an industrial or commercial business,” and said the current size allowed under city code is not large enough to communicate the message effectively and safely.

“The issue was the size of the signs, not the subject,” Gallion said after the meeting.